S. Karunatilaka starts the journey where one normally ends: it starts after Maali Almeida death. He has seven moons to figure out if he wants to enter the light or roam Inbetween forever.

He has 7 moons to decide to enter the light. If he chooses not to, he will roam in the Inbetween with other lost souls forever. The problem is, he doesn’t remember his life or why he died. With no knowledge of the past, it becomes an impossible choice for the future. So, the book becomes a journey of discovering his past life, grieving for it, and at the same time accepting the consequences of his choices for his loved ones as well as what awaits him. If that wouldn’t be enough, it is a story of being a gay war photographer in Sri Lanka during the civil war. It is a story of trauma, love, and loss.

It is a beautifully written piece that takes you by the head and leads you through a journey where acceptance of the good and bad is the only way out. It is a journey of a selfish (and deeply traumatized) man towards kindness and care, even for his murderer. He learns to let go of his friends, sacrifices his freedom when it matters, and ends up where he is supposed to be in the end.

Tho, what stuck with me most was the story of death and its impact. Coming from a Western society where death is something to be feared, the book takes death and turns it into something of a magical cycle that is always there and awaiting no matter what. It shows you that death is nothing to be feared of but rather an opportunity to live your life to the fullest. I loved every page of it and would definitely recommend that others pick it up.

It might be the best book out there but it’s just perfect for me. When reading the book, it felt as if I am reading my thoughts put (much more eloquently) on paper. If you are anxious or if you have someone who is and what to understand them better, this book is perfect for that.

Each page, each worry was like a spillover from my head. It made me feel less alone, less weird, and maybe even less anxious. It also gave me a bit of hope – I can survive my anxiety as well. I know it will never go away but I can reach a point where it doesn’t grip me that much, where I can have just a little bit of freedom to venture out. In a way, it also helped me to understand the people around me and why they chose to be next to me.

I will be grateful to K. Kinsman for giving me hope and some breathing room. Tho, as I said, it might not be for everyone. But if you are one of the anxious folk, pick it up, read it and discover one more person who is in your tribe. As cliche as it is, you are not alone and there couldn’t be better comfort than that.

I am one of the weird ones who never watched or read Martian even if it was hailed as one of the most accurately written science fiction pieces ever done. So, this book is my first encounter with A. Weir and his style of writing. And guess what? I absolutely loved it.

For a person who has a very strong inner geek, this book is just pure joy. In my mind, this is an ode to the scientific method. While nothing much happens in the book – the guy recovers his memories and floats in outer space for the most part; it is a great piece nonetheless. It shows how you go about discoveries, what is a test & trial method, and how science addresses problems and unexpected developments.

Also, the storytelling here is interesting; a person wakes up in outer space and has to navigate his environment with absolutely no memories. Spoiler alert: he regains them in the end but even that is a journey of discovery. How do you make choices and approach your environment when you don’t even know what you are supposed to do there? I would definitely recommend this one to all the science buffs out there.

When movies are made, people tend to forget that first there was a word. I am here to remind you of that. While you might have seen Little Fires Everywhere on one of the streaming services, there was a book before that and it is such a beautiful read with a rather simple lesson: riches don’t make you rich or even happy.

It is a story of two families: one that you would say has everything except true bond and love for each other; another that you would say has nothing but only freedom to be themselves. It explores how resentment happens and what kind of impact it has on the relationship; it also explores what kind of impact secrets have on one’s story.

An artist with secrets and a daughter move to a small town where everything has a clear order and process. She rents a small apartment from a family that fosters and is proud of that order. And guess what? The boy falls in love with that daughter but that daughter falls in love with another boy. And then the questions start coming in: how do you manage adolescent love? How do you manage adolescent rejection? How do you keep your secrets in the dark corners? How to maintain order when creative chaos and freedom start spilling over? What happens when a creative daughter is born into a oder-loving family and has a lot of resentment collected over the years? Little fires everywhere.

I feel like this list has some sort of a trend: stories told backward. All of the books on this list, maybe with exception of Hi, Anxiety, have stories told where normally they would end. Witches is just like that.

While it starts with a reporter going to visit a local witch and learn of her gift, it ends up being a story of the pasts. Yes, you read it correctly: multiple pasts – one of the reporter and one of the witch. It tells the story of our relationship with nature and how much it can heal us. For me, this book was one more proof of the magic of ancient practices and the power of stories.

It also tells a story of growing up in local, poor communities and the toll it takes on everyone’s life, especially women. It is a story of a widow with three kids when she is just a kid herself, barely nineteen years old. How she ended up being a local witch mainly because there was no “normal” medicine and ancient rituals were the only real options.

Most importantly, it tells the story of the bond that lies between women and the strength that it carries. It tells the story of a witch and her daughters, a witch and her mother, a witch, and the reporter, and a reporter and her mother. We take so much strength out of that and in a way lift each other up. And for me, that is a beautiful lesson.

So, if not for the (nature) magic, read it for the strength it carries, for the history and relationships that shape each and every one of us.